The second installment of A Retrospective, in which I recap my favorite albums released from 2000 to 2008, this time: 2001. Wrought with turmoil and watching a life fall apart as so many others were having similar experiences but in a different manner; that was 2001 for you. The year I turned 21 (hence the wine bottle photo above). A year that lives in infamy. Young or old, we all seemed to grow up that year. Music, too seemed to progress in ways unthought, even before that fateful day.

Again, the ideal is for this to be a friendly open dialog. Please feel free to chime in with some of your favorites from 2001 as well. Here’s my top 15 albums from that year:

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15. Stephen Malkmus by Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus has long been an influential character in music, a total nod to his Pavement days. This album, his self-titled debut, finally found Malkmus striking out on his own, and he did so with flare and agility. Stephen Malkmus was a perfect introduction to a man on his own without the confines of prior monikers. And yeah, in some ways it may have picked up where our beloved Pavement left off (quite quickly, in fact, as work on this project began almost immediately after the disbandment of Pavement). But whatever; it’s still a brilliant LP.

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14. Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever by Explosions In The Sky
I love the first explosion in “Greet Death”, the opening track to this Explosions In The Sky album; it has the ability to rock the nuts off anyone listening to it. What makes EITS such a great band is that they’re capable of creating such immense sound one moment, and in the next dropping it down to the most minimal. True to the genre, the album appears brief with a track-list numbering six, but it is anything but as no song is fewer than six minutes with most topping seven and a pair over ten. Despite their length EITS manages to maintain attention throughout; and that alone is a worthy feat.

Explosions In The Sky: Yasmin The Light [mp3]

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13. Ancient Melodies Of The Future by Built To Spill
I can remember the first time I heard “In Your Mind”, the third track off Built To Spill‘s Ancient Melodies Of The Future. I cannot remember where, or when this took place; but I can remember the emotions that rocked my mere existence. Many of the songs weren’t nearly as ‘rockin’ as found on some of the older albums, but it allowed Built To Spill to show off a different side, one a bit more delicate and personal.

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12. The Coast Is Never Clear by Beulah
Part of the Elephant 6 collective (the band, not the release), Beulah released The Coast Is Never Clear on September 11 of this year. What a day to release an album; but it was ultimately the antithesis to that cataclysmic day. Songs like “A Good Man Is Easy To Kill” and “Popular Mechanics For Lovers” just seemed so perfect. They had just the right amount of sadness, but were backed by such effortless upbeat psychedelic pop true to the E6 name.

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11. Live At Jittery Joe’s by Jeff Mangum
For anyone lamenting the demise of Neutral Milk Hotel, ex-front-man Jeff Mangum’s Live At Jittery Joe’s was a brief relapse into the obsession. Out of twelve songs, the album features ten from prior studio albums and two others: a cover of Phil Spector’s “I Love How You Love Me” and “I Will Bury You In Time”, a rare NMH track only found previously on bootlegs. Sure, it’s a completest’s album, but that’s what I am.

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10. Owls by Owls
Not to be confused with Minneapolis’s The Owls, Owls were a short-lived art-rock group from Chicago. The band channeled elements of free jazz and post-punk in their lone self-titled album. Birthed out of two groups fronted by Tim Kinsella, 90s group Cap’n Jazz and Joan Of Arc, Owls brief imprint with Owls crops up with artists that mix a similar math-y free jazz and post-punk sounds today.

Owls: Everyone Is My Friend [mp3]

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9. Your Majesty by The Anniversary
The Anniversary‘s follow-up to Designing A Nervous Breakdown, Your Majesty didn’t quite capture its predecessor’s pop strength but was a more than worthy album. It didn’t rock as much and instead delved a little more into sunny yet trippy psychedelic pop. Songs like “The Death Of The King” and “The Siren Sings” were, in effect, mesmerizing. With those massive distorted chords and warbled synth lines, fronted again by harmony male/female vocals – the songs just fit with the time. And yet in revisiting them, they’re just as great as the day I first heard them.

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8. The Photo Album by Death Cab For Cutie
Another treasure from the Death Cab For Cutie vault, and another timeless record from Barsuk. From the subtle opening “Steadier Footing” to the tear-jerker “Styrofoam Plates”, The Photo Album was an album that worked it in every way possible. And if you were lucky enough to snag this baby on vinyl (as I was), it made the experience of listening to this record all the more perfect.

Death Cab For Cutie: A Movie Script Ending [mp3]

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7. The Glow Pt. 2 by Microphones
How to describe and album that set forth a generation, backed by a man that had lived the definition for some time, and a sound that even today seems both timeless and ahead of the times. That’s The Glow Pt. 2 by Microphones for you; again finding Elverum expanding worlds by giving us a glimpse at his. Truly a stand-out, 2001 or otherwise.

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6. Rock It To The Moon by Electrelane
Rock It To The Moon was Electrelane‘s first LP and it technically debuted in 2001 (UK), though it wasn’t released stateside until 2002. It took what so many of us wanted from post-rock groups like EITS and experimented a bit more with sound and melody rather than just loud and soft. Prime example is the second track, “Long Dark”, which opened with a two minute avant-garde piece before dropping in the Pink Panther bass-line and expanding into a swirling synths and punchy percussion, all of which gave the track an experimental cohesion. They had yet to fully integrate vocals, which made their follow-up albums all the better, but Rock It To The Moon was still a more than viable debut.

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5. Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi by Camera Obscura
After banding together in 1996, Camera Obscura didn’t release their debut full-length until November of 2001; that being Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi. Soft and lovable indie pop with light hints of orchestration, the album remains a collection of some of their greatest songs, even today after three additional releases. “Happy New Year” and “Eighties Fan” are mainstays in my playlist and that’s not likely to change anytime soon. Originally released in 2001 on Andmoresound Records and in 2002 on Elefant Records, Biggest Bluest Hi-Fi was reissued by Merge in 2004.

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4. Club 8 by Club 8
To this day, “Love In December”, the opening track of Club 8‘s self-titled LP, remains my favorite song by the Swedish duo. Johan Angergård pops up in virtually every year’s list and it’s easy to see why: his work extends from Club 8 to include the indie-pop collective that is Acid House Kings, as well as the always refreshing group The Legends. In Club 8, Angergård is joined by Karolina Komstedt. Much softer than their earlier stuff, Club 8 is an album that is entirely dreamy in its relaxed nature with Komstedt at the vocal helm. A rarity, Angergård joined Komstedt for backup vocals on the near trip-hop track “Falling From Grace”.

Club 8: Love In December [mp3]

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3. Oh, Inverted World by The Shins
Oh, Inverted World remains The Shins strongest work thus far, though Chutes Too Narrow came pretty damn close. While most will give “New Slang” or “Caring Is Creepy” the nod for best song on the album, I choose “Girl On The Wing”. Elitists might discount this album for its association with the wildly popular Garden State soundtrack, but as a whole the album is a striking collection of great tunes The Shins have yet to truly match in overall strength.

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2. Quiet Is The New Loud by Kings Of Convenience
Kings Of Convenience has, in my opinion, always been considered the epitome of folk-pop. With romantically-tinged guitars and non-stop harmony vocals, Quiet Is The New Loud found Kings Of Convenience creating one hit after another. Perfection comes in many forms, and when it comes to albums, Quiet Is The New Loud can be considered truly perfect.

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1. You Should Be At Home Here by Carissa’s Wierd
I have long been obsessed with Carissa’s Wierd, of which many members have gone on to form successful follow-up groups like Band Of Horses, Sera Cahoone, S, and Grand Archives. You Should Be At Home Here, while not my introduction to the band (that came with Ugly But Honest), has been the favorite thanks to beautifully orchestrated slowcore tracks like “Brooke Daniels’ Tiny Broken Fingers” and “All Apologies & Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine”. In fact, at the release of Grand Archives’ self-titled debut last year, Mat Brooke took the stage with S’s Jenn Ghetto (his female counterpart in Carissa’s Wierd) for a duet of “All Apologies” that brought tears to my eyes the moment they started playing it. Having never seen Carissa’s Wierd before their demise, it was a dream come true.

I’ve decided to create an installment in which I do a recap of my favorite albums of the past ten years now that we’re coming up on the turn-of-decade – yes, 2010 is upon us. They key: I do them one at a time. I figure contemplating the weight of albums that have been instituted in my library for the better part (or even just half) of a decade would warrant a skewed opinion when comparing them to those released just this month. And, as these things are all truly opinion-based, well I just couldn’t have that.

(Besides, an appreciator such as myself would have an even larger and more time consuming task ahead of them were they to go through the thousands of albums that have been released, listened to, loved, etc. over the past ten years. No, much easier to split it year by year. And yes, when available for public consumption, I’ll include an mp3 for your enjoyment.)

These are the albums that stick with you – or at least the ones that have stuck with me; they have longevity. They’re ones I’ll listen to for decades to come. We begin with my freshman year of college, 2000. Well, second half of my freshman year, that is. That being said, I would love for this to be a friendly dialog. So please feel free to chime in with some of your favorites as well…

Here we go: my top 15 albums of 2000…

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15. Fevers & Mirrors by Bright Eyes
Odd as it may seem here, Bright Eyes‘ Fevers & Mirrors was a favorite of mine around 2000 and 2001. Songs like “The Calendar Hung Itself” and “When the Curious Girl Realizes She Is Under Glass” just fit with my persona at the time. I was a sad bastard back then, but I’ve outgrown that phase. Still, every so often I revisit those albums of old and it still astonishes me that I can feel good while listening to them. Fevers & Mirrors is one such album.

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14. Crooked Fingers by Crooked Fingers
Like Fevers & Mirrors, Crooked Fingers‘ self-titled LP had me in its grip for a long time. “A New Drink For An Old Drunk” was a perfect song back then, and in various scenarios today it works just as well. And who could forget “She Spread Her Legs & Flew Away”, or “Juliette”, or even “The Man Who Died Of Nothing At All”? Crooked Fingers was a difficult one for Eric Bachman to top; he didn’t until last year’s Forfeit/Fortune.

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13. The Great Eastern by The Delgados
I don’t think I started listening to The Delgados until sometime around 2004, possibly even 2005. And while my initial love was Hate, eventually the power of The Great Eastern took hold. Sure, specific tracks on Hate may stand out more than some on this record (“All I Need Is Hate”, for example), but as a whole I think The Great Eastern is more consistently good.

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12. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Containing only four songs, only one of which was under 20 minutes (“Antennas To Heaven” came in at just under 19, far from brevity), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven is all about building up to those epic climaxes and throwing out spacey shoegaze-like drones while maintaining that almost classical music approach signature to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. To say this album is breathtaking would be an understatement. I’ll probably kick myself later for not putting it in the top 10.

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11. The Lioness by Songs: Ohia
The Lioness remains one of my all-time favorite releases by Jason Molina, no matter which moniker he may be using at the time of release. The only LP truly capable of exceeding its greatness is Trials & Errors (2004) by Magnolia Electric Co. Molina excels, especially under the guise of Songs: Ohia, at creating minimalistic country-folk tunes that on The Lioness dabbles lightly in a bit fuller sound.

‘The Lioness’ by Songs: Ohia

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10. Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse
Like many albums in this list, Moon & Antarctica remains a favorite of mine from the Modest Mouse catalog. It was around this time I really began expanding my music horizons and Modest Mouse was a band that helped push me down this path. Tunes like “I Came As A Rat”, “Gravity Rides Everything”, and “Dark Center Of The Universe” all carried me toward this true obsession with music, from which I doubt I’ll ever return.

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9. He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms by A Silver Mt. Zion
A Silver Mt. Zion snared me in its trap – looking for some great study music but not willing to seek out the limited classical music of my parents and their parents (and not knowing the immense modern artists who were more than worthy), I ended up landing on A Silver Mt. Zion. And while it wasn’t always instrumental, at the right volume it worked perfectly. Only later did I come to truly fall in love with this album, as well as their brethren, Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

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8. Ugly But Honest by Carissa’s Wierd
I discovered Carissa’s Wierd from a magazine. It was a fairly random encounter, actually, but it led to an obsession like no other. I ultimately downloaded everything I could find from the band. Eventually, I would collect every album of theirs I could find – all in physical form, of course. To this day, the only item that eludes me is a rare 7″ single containing a remix or two; I even snagged a copy of that rare Scrapbook disc. I still find songs like “Drunk With The Only Saints I Know” and “Fluorescent Lights” to be among the most moving and personal songs around.

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7. It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water by Microphones
The great thing about A Retrospective is that it allows me to list all those albums that truly should have made my ‘best of’ list back in 2000. (Had I created one at the time, it is highly unlikely It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water by The Microphones would have made it on the list. It was just a little beyond my temperament at the time.) But these days, I cannot get enough of practically everything Phil Elverum does, this album included. That being said, as soon as I can muster the cash, I’m gonna snag one of those “Books 6 & 7″ copies by Mount Eerie from Easy Street Records. Damn.

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6. Live by Built To Spill
A collection of some of Built To Spill‘s best tracks recorded prior to 2000, from the astonishing Perfect From Now On (1997) to selections from Keep It Like A Secret (1999). It also includes an epic 20-minute rendition of Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer” and one of the best lyrical songs of the 90s: “Car”.

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5. Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons by Blonde Redhead
This is really a no-brainer. Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons has always been an album to look up to since its release in 2000. With songs so different – I mean, just listen to “In Particular” stacked up next to “This Is Not” and jump back to “Hated Because Of Great Qualities” – it’s amazing they go so well together. Then again, that’s something of which Blonde Redhead has always excelled: putting together exceptional tracklists.

‘This Is Not’ by Blonde Redhead

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4. Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant by Belle & Sebastian
I could say that Tigermilk was my first true love when it comes to Belle & Sebastian, but I’d be lying. No, it was actually Fold Your Hands opening track “I Fought In A War” that sold me on this band. Afterwards, songs like “The Model” and “Don’t Leave The Light On Baby” dominated my playlist, even through the release of The Life Pursuit and beyond.

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3. Designing A Nervous Breakdown by The Anniversary
I can name few albums that have not only stuck with me through the years, but that also so heavily influenced my love for pop music. Designing A Nervous Breakdown by The Anniversary is absolutely such an album. The male/female vocals of Adrianne Verhoeven, Josh Berwanger, and Justin Roelofs were perfection back then. And songs like “The D In Detroit” and “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter” continue to wow me today.

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2. We Have The Facts & We’re Voting Yes by Death Cab For Cutie
By far, We Have The Facts continues to dominate as my all-time favorite Death Cab For Cutie album. The lackluster way Gibbard sings about driving down the “405″ and the contemplations on friends and girlfriends reminds me of my college days and, later, grad school; it was the perfect accompaniment as I made my way out to Pullman from Portland, driving through the Palouse doing 75 in my Volvo wagon and watching the moon crest orange over hills at 1am. Yeah, even songs like “Scientist Studies” and “The Employment Pages” ring true today. Calm beauty seeps through every single moment of this album.

‘For What Reason’ by Death Cab For Cutie

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1. Kid A by Radiohead
I mean c’mon! How could you not place this as your favorite album of 2000? It was Radiohead‘s follow-up to the amazing OK Computer and was really their first foray into a sound much more experimental than they had previously tampered with. “Idioteque”; the song remains to this day one of my all-time favorites by Radiohead. The tracklist is flawless – a feat they hadn’t achieved before, and wouldn’t again until In Rainbows.